credits

released 16 August 2011

Thanks to Mike Dresch, recording and mixing genius
Thanks to Lisa Vande Vegte, Marnie Teppen, Matthew Morkve, Eddie Hanlon, Kelly Duckert, Mike Lynch, Justin Ross, Conler Mandt, Sean O'Brien and all other close friends and family for being my support and inspiration
Thanks to Vincent the Uke, Mozart the Toy Piano, and Sebastian F. Schwartz the Kazoo for being the best tiny instruments a girl could ask for

Recorded at Cathouse Studios in August, 2011
All songs recorded and mixed by Mike Dresch
All songs written and performed by Elsa Rae

contact / help

Sun comes up rain goes down on this sleep little safe and sound town. People stay where their parents were born. I could've sworn I could count every car that passed on the one main street and the feet as the people walked by. My life is mundane. Stays the same in this place. With some grace I will get out of here. Wake up from that reoccurring dream where I'm flying but I lose my wings. I fall into eternity. Suddenly hard wet ground callously it breaks my fall. I'm in a town of 20 and that's all. I run but my feet find no escape. This place swallows me whole. I'm the victim watching generations pass without hope or dream or interesting thought. Keep plotting an escape plan/get-away plan. Save my life. Please plan to rescue me. I can't stand this eternity alone here. It has been one too many years and I can't see any way out. Ambitions depleted I'm finally defeated. Universe you've won. Sun comes up rain goes down on this place I now call my hometown. I've become much too comfortable. I once was full of aspiration but currently my life is stationary. I'm content with mundane. I've thrown my mind down the drain. If you're sane you will never come here.

Track Name: Reconstructed Boy

I want to pull you into pieces. Reconstruct you into someone new. I'll snip your ears off give you new ones. You'll hear things in a different way. Your smile's been less bright lately. I'll get you brand new shining teeth. Each day your eyes they grow grayer. I'll find you some more vibrant than the greenest grass. Now with your pieces in a pile I'll pick out ones I'd like to keep. The hand that used to grasp mine tightly while we both fell asleep. I'll let you keep your left knee-cap. The one all covered up in scars you got when you were a child. You're bravery battle wounds from falling off your bike. You used to wander miles to find me so I'm gonna find you stronger feet. Your shoulders shook every time you laughed. Now they only carry your weight. I want to make you feel younger. I want to make you feel free. Maybe with all of these new parts and pieces you'll be a little like you used to be. Maybe with your new ears you'll listen when I tell you that I love you. Maybe with your new eyes you'll see me drifting away. Maybe with your new arms you'll stop me from leaving. Maybe with your old heart everything would be okay.

Maybe with your old heart, everything would be okay.

Track Name: Animalistic

They say an elephant never forgets. I regret to inform that I don't either. All your malice and your mistakes I remember still. They make me feel, I feel just like an animal. They say a cheetah can outrun. Then how come you were running away? Did you think that I wouldn't catch up to you. Oh man I am an animal. There is a beast within me. With every lie you told it was released. I'll cease to be domesticated. I held my breath for days. Could've drown without the gills. But I've got skills to survive in this wild world. That's why I am an animal. I hid all of my heartbreak well. A camouflaged exterior concealing inside hell. You tore me up. You tore me down. Residual repentance will not save you from me now. There is a beast within me. With every lie you told it was released. I'll cease to be domesticated. Where has all my instinct gone to? Survival of the fittest isn't true if no one's meant to be with you. Mild in demeanor, I was young but you were mean and you were wild. So now I bear it all, my teeth my claws. Animalistic and in awe of how I've changed to kill the monster that you are. There is a beast within me. With every lie you told it was released. I'll cease to be domesticated. They say that you cannot be the prey. You must be the predator.

Track Name: For You, I'll Pretend To Be a Woman

We stood by the ocean. As sand caressed our skin I could taste you and the salt on my lips. The tides kept on turning. My body was yearning to be closer to you than it had been. Let's sink down together. The beaches kept footprints we left as we told all of our secret longings and desires. I stepped on a seashell, a small creatures previous home. The tracks I left became bloody. So you put me on your back and carried me so far. While I held onto you, you held me heart. Let's sink down together. Driving above landscapes. Suspended on bridges. I said I feel like I'm flying. Let us build a life in the sky here with clouds as our neighbors. You just shook your head and said It's time to come down. So let's sink down together. I was a child then. You needed a woman. Could not relish in my childlike fantasies. We drifted apart then without any reason. For love's not an age it is a mind-set. Let's sink down together. (I was a child. You needed a woman.) Let's sink down together.

Track Name: Catfish Song

You saw me in a dream last night. I was sailing alone in a ship of white. I asked you to come aboard my little boat of hopes and dreams. You blinked your eyes three times and sat in silent reverie. Then you said Please don't wake me. I am sleeping. I am sleeping this day away. Please do not wake me. I have no intent of seeing you today. So I jumped into the sea of blue. Drown slowly among the sharks and the catfish, too. You awoke then my dear to find me lying at your side. Yet part of you wished that I had really died. So you said Please don't wake me. I am sleeping. I am sleeping these days away. Oh, Please do not wake me. I have no intent of seeing you today.

Track Name: Flowerman

Flowerman, I have a plan to make everything greener but I need to be keener on where to plant and what to grow. I'm a little bit low on my knowledge of foliage. Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Your thumbs are green. Mine are blue. They haven't planted as much as You know the ways and the rules, the tools and all their uses. I have been abusing my green earth. You can show me all that it's worth. Together we can live with the trees. Even the mountain goats, they will seem happy. Flowerman, with your two hands you will change the sepia-tone catacomb cataclysmic into merry golds and greens with oxygen so clean and pure. I'm sure of it. You planted a seed inside my heart. I planted ten more into the soil. Simultaneously they'll grow with me. We'll live in horticulture harmony. Flowerman, thanks to your plans, everything can get greener.

Track Name: Backseat Lullabye

Backseat Lullaby. Brake lights sending me to sleep tonight. And carhorns are screeching and I’m reaching out. For travel maps and memories hidden in compartments while my knees press against the passenger seat. A fearless foe with painted cracks to cover pavement wreckage and debris. Then me, a pothole mind, my thoughts can’t fill the empty ones that I see ahead. Remember when you said Yellow lines will lead your life right. I’m taking off tonight. Florescent greens with reds and golds seep into my long-lost loving eyes.I try to see them blur, a fast paced world passing as I leave this place behind. We’ll go nowhere this time. Yellow lines lead left and right. I think I’m lost tonight. A sunroof and star ceiling. A shelter and new home will come. But for now let me live in the backseat. Remember when you said Yellow lines will lead your life right. I’m finally free tonight.

Track Name: It Gets Too Quiet

I left my body on your doorstep last night. The low wind made me shiver and the half moon took my eyes. Please open your door for me. Please. I’m getting cold. Please open your door for me. Please. Before I get too old. You packed one suitcase and gave up all the rest. And now this home is empty. But there’s nothing to lose when there’s nothing left. And the half moon rises up above that train where passengers forget their name and never know just where they’re going. And you’d been travelling by that way and never gave a thought to how you’d whisper to me you’d left long ago. So please open your door for me. Please. I’m getting cold. Please open your door for me. Please. Before I get too old. It gets too quiet waiting for the sun to rise above us. It gets too quiet waiting for the sun to overwhelm us. It gets too quiet waiting for the sun to overtake us. It gets too quiet waiting for you and I’m always waiting. I left my body on your doorstep last night. The low wind made me shiver and the half moon stole my life.

Track Name: Dreaming Kids

Yesterday’s blush and last night’s clothes are clinging to my skin. They say Don’t leave us yet, we’ve got stories we could still tell. They’ve got words enough for all of us. Mine lie dormant on my tongue. We were the dreaming kids. We were the visionaries. We were the silent ones. The world still heard our fury. Sunshine come and say hello like that day when we first met. And we would forcibly expose our hearts to fight off sleep. Wooden floors would creak above our thoughts and pay no mind to all we’d ask of them. They’d only whisper in return Ah, ah, ah. Soul beneath, you’ve endured all my feet have asked of you. And we, we move from town to town to town to town. Shelter me crooked tree. They have learned how to hang so well from your limbs that cascade across across across my life. They were the dreaming kids. They were the visionaries. They were the silent ones. But I can still hear their fury. They're crying Ah, ah, ah. Travel on. Leave it all. Yesterday and all those nights are clinging to me. I can hear all my friends crying Please don’t leave us. I’ve got words that I can’t speak but I feel them moving. They’ll float right out my lips and press themselves against yours. How’m I a silent one if my heart’s beating loud and hard for all of you? You are the Dreaming Kids.